Patsy J. Giacchi was in a
quartermaster railhead company during World War II. On April 28, 1944, the LST on which he
was taking part in the practice landing known as Exercise Tiger was torpedoed. In 1998,
his daughter discovered the interview with Angelo Crapanzano on this web site. Angelo was
a crew member on the 507. He and Patsy didn't know each other during World War II, but for
40 years they shared a terrible secret: that they had survived a tragedy that "didn't
happen."

Aaron
Elson: Where
did you grow up?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
was born and raised in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Aaron
Elson: Where
did you go to high school?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
went to Hackensack High School for a couple of years. And then I quit because things were
rough in those days, to make a living. I helped the family out. I met [my future wife]
Emily, and then Pearl Harbor was bombed, the war broke out, and I turned 18 years old and
I got drafted right away.

Aaron
Elson: How
did you meet your wife?

Patsy
Giacchi: In
1940, I met her in Lodi, New Jersey.

Aaron
Elson: How
did you meet?

Emily
Giacchi: On
a blind date.

Patsy
Giacchi: I
met her on a blind date.

Emily
Giacchi: So
it worked out, didnt it?

Aaron
Elson: Did
you get married before or after the war?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
got married after the war. She waited for me.

Aaron
Elson: What
happened after you were drafted?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
went for my physical in Newark, New Jersey. Id say there were ten busloads that went
from the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack; whats the capacity of a bus, 35,
40? The buses were full.

I passed my physical.
Some of my buddies that I grew up with failed, who had this, who had that. Then they gave
me about ten days to clarify things, like I was working in a supermarket, to tell them
that Im going into the Army.

Then I went to Fort Dix.
I stayed there about a week. Then I went to Camp Lee, Virginia, where I took my basic
training, which was 13 weeks like all other soldiers.

After the 13 weeks were
up, they gave me a furlough for 17 days. I came home, went out with Emily, had a good
time. Then I went back to Camp Lee, and within one week I moved on to Chenango,
Pennsylvania, and thats where they issued me my steel helmet, the carbine gun, a gas
mask and everything else.

We stayed at Camp
Chenango about another week. From there I went, at one or two oclock in the morning,
on a troop train that was all boarded up; you couldnt see anything. Everything
seemed to be like confidential. So we knew something was up.

From Chenango we went to
Orangeburg, New York. From there we took a ferry across to a big ship called the
Mauritania, which was waiting for us. That was a Cunard liner.

It took a couple of good
hours to get on this troop ship. My number was 13, Ill never forget it. And as they
get to Number 13, youve got to call your name. I said, "Patrick J.
Giacchi!" And as Im getting on board, theres military police on each side
so you cant escape. And youd see some of the guys break down, they dont
want to go, but you have to go.

I was on the boat that
night, then the following morning before you know it, it starts to take off. You go
outside the limits of the United States. Before you know it you dont see any more
land.

The Mauritania took us to
Liverpool, England. I stayed there for a while, and we started to train, train, train.
Then, after six or seven months, they take us out and then bring us to a marshaling area.

I said, "What the
heck is a marshaling area?"

"Well," I was
told, "thats supposed to be confidential. Theyre gonna give you special
training."

Then they started to
examine my teeth, they started to examine my eyes, and if I needed a pair of eyeglasses it
would be made special to fit the gas mask, in case the Germans dropped gas.

We did a lot there, and
before you know it, from this marshaling area they took us and they sent us to
Brixham.

I said, "What is
this for?"

"Were gonna be
in a program called Tiger Exercise."

"Whats Tiger
Exercise?"

"Were going to
make a fake run to go on land in Slapton Sands."

"Wheres
Slapton Sands?"

"By the time we get
down there youll see what it is. What were gonna do is were gonna have a
fake problem."

But on the ship, they
load us up with all tanks, we got the Ducks [amphibious vehicles] and everything else, as
though it was a real invasion. And there were three or four companies of the boys. I was
in the 557th Quartermaster Railhead Company. So we got on this LST, and the
first thing I did, I went down to the tank deck. They said, "Go find a place where
youre gonna sleep." We slept on top of the trucks. We slept anywhere we could
find a place. I found a stretcher on the side where the two big doors open up. I stayed
there in a corner.

Up above there was
another stretcher, and my friend Patty Moreno took that. He was in the motor pool, and was
from Brooklyn. We start talking, in the meantime you look at the ship and the ship is
about 300 feet long, about 50 feet wide. You see all the tanks and the trucks and
everything down there, and the guys are all sitting down, whos writing to their
loved ones, who was playing the harmonica, a ukelele, little things, just to pass the time
because theres nothing to do. We were gonna be on this ship for three or four days.

All of a sudden,
were sitting down there, I was sitting at the edge of the bunk and talking to Patty,
"Ahhh, when I get back Im gonna do this, Im gonna do that," and by
that time Id heard some funny noises. But I paid no mind because this was supposed
to be an exercise.

Then I heard another
noise, like a scraping, and it knocked me out of my stretcher. I saw little puddles of
water, where the big doors are and the big chains. I fell down. I got up, and I started to
panic. I said, "Patty! Somethings up!"

"Nah, this is a dry
run!"

In the meantime I put my
steel helmet on. I turned around and looked and I saw all the guys, shooting dice, playing
cards, everybody, a thousand soldiers. So all of a sudden I picked my helmet up, took the
gas mask, dropped the gas mask, went for my life belt. I started to go up the stairs, and
as Im going up I can see on the sides of the ship the silhouette of what was like
fire. I said, "Whats this?" As I got on top, I couldnt believe it.
The ocean was on fire. Other boats were hit. I couldnt believe it. It was the real
thing. I said, "This cant be a joke!" Behind me comes another guy, his
name was Bradshaw, and we look around. He said, "Oh my God! Whats this?"

Then we got a direct hit.
BOM! And I knew that who was down there, forget it. I knew right away because I flew up,
ten, fifteen feet, I came down. Bradshaw landed on the side of me. I hit the corner of a
piece of sharp, square metal, I dont know what it was. I hit that and I started to
bleed. But I said, "Im all right! Im all right! Im gonna make
it!" I was dizzy. I got up. Bradshaw looked at me. We turn and look and we can see
the ship, the 507, was in half. So it was going down.

He says, "Pat,
weve got to get off of here."

"Yeah!"

"Lets
go!"

So we suddenly wowww, it
seemed to be about like 40 feet, oh my God! So we had to go. We inflated our life jackets,
held hands, we hit the water. Boom! You go down, salt water, about 40 degrees, oh! Cold.
Then we started to drift away. The water was on fire. All around us you could smell the
oil and the gas. Then you see all the soldiers and hear their death cry in the water. Who
was hit. Who had an arm and a leg missing. As I looked up I saw a couple of sailors
wrapped around a 40-millimeter gun, their heads hanging like this, blood, they were dead.

We started to drift away.
And as were pulling away, pulling away, pulling away, we held hands together, and we
could see other guys in the water. Ill never forget, the water was on fire, there
was a gasoline smell, but the [worst thing was the] death cry of the sailors and the
soldiers, "Helllp! Helllp! Helllp!" And theres nobody to help. These are
guys that were wounded. I was all right. I mean, compared to those guys. The blood was
coming down, but I didnt care, I knew what I was doing. So we held on together,
Bradshaw and I, and we started to drift, drift, drift, and by that time, you could see the
difference between us. He looked at me and said, "Patty, hold on, were doing
fine." [Mumbling] "Yeah, I know..."

We kept drifting,
drifting, drifting, drifting. Everything was quiet. Off in the distance you could see the
stern or the bow, whatever it was, of the 507 still up there, and then you could see all
the guys out there, its getting further away from us, and were drifting. We
could see other guys in the water, hanging onto a liferaft or something like that. I said,
"Lets stay where we are, dont pick up nobody else."

We kept drifting,
drifting. All of a sudden off in the distance you could see a spark, like a little light.
"No, no, youre imagining." Before you know it, its right on top of
you, and it was a big British corvette. They got down a big special wire with a big
bucket. They sent it down, and my friend was in better shape than I was, so he put me in
the bucket first. They threw me in the bucket, and it pulls you all the way to the top.
They pull it inside, and its a big corvette, oh, what beautiful red rugs and the
British pictures of Her Majesty the Queen and everything else.

"Hiya Mate,"
they said, "Well take care of you, Mate, right away." They took off my
clothes that were soaking wet for hours and hours, they gave me a needle, they gave me a
shot of scotch, they gave me dry British clothes. Then they picked up my friend. By that
time it was almost morning, and as were going in, the British corvette cant
help it because theyve got quite a few soldiers that they picked up. As theyre
going in, you could hear the boat hitting the bodies in the water, with the corvette going
through. "We cant help it, Mate, weve got to go, we cant help it,
Mate."

Before you know it,
its the next morning. Me and this friend of mine, hes the only one I remember
with me, together. Were in this room, and theyve got a big tremendous table
set up. And on the the table theres all wallets that theyve picked up, because
they had two colored companies going out, graves registration, with grappling hooks to
pick up bodies. And on the table they had all kinds of wallets with money and pictures of
loved ones, pictures with their wives and their kids. All kinds of money was piled,
singles, soaking wet with the salt water. Singles, the fives, the tens, the twenties,
hundred dollars bills. Loads, I mean big loads. They asked me, "If theres
anything that belongs to you, take it." A big pile of false teeth, eyeglasses, you
name it, yes, they were there. Nothing was mine. Because I couldnt believe it. The
only thing I had was that I had a feeling that, Jesus, like a garbage can going down a
hill, when that second torpedo, whatever it was, hit, ohhh, what a noise it made, when I
flew up. What a feeling that was. But I knew Id be all right. I was afraid of the
water, because I always feared water. After I got torpedoed I said, "Now, into the
water I have to go." Well, I did that.

But now were on
land. Were at the port. They had sent an LST out to pick up some bodies, and they
came back and opened up the two big doors. You looked in there and you could see piles of
soldiers and sailors, dead. They closed the doors right away because the port was loaded
with English police and civilians, and they didnt want everybody to see what was
going on because it was supposed to be hush-hush. This was a tragedy. It should have never
happened, especially with D-Day five or six weeks away.

So they chased everybody
away, and they took us and put us into another company. They didnt say anything to
us, so we thought we were coming home, because every time, at the slightest noise, oh, I
went crazy, the noise. Bradshaw would say, "Youll be all right, youll be
right."

I said, "Yeah,
Bradshaw, I think were gonna go home."

"Were
finished," he said. "We saw our action."

Then, a few days later, a
buck sergeant came and said, "Survivors of the 507, follow me."

We follow him. Were
waiting for him to tell us, hey, were going to go home.

We went into a truck.
They gave us whatever we had. We lost everything when we got torpedoed. So they take us,
and we ride, we ride, we ride, before you know it, were back in the area of
Brixham.

I said, "Holy God! I
can smell the gas! I can smell the oil. I can smell the water! What is this?"

The sergeant says,
"Sorry, boys. My orders were to deliver you here. Youre going on an LST.
Youre going back."

"Going back
WHERE?"

He says, "Were
going to invade in a couple of days."

This was May 28th.
So all of a sudden its two or three days later, were on a LST again, and then
before you know it its the following morning, you look out there, and by the
thousands the LSTs are all lined up. Then they waited till it got dark that night, which
became June 6th. So were taking off. I go on the tank deck of the LST. I
stood there. The officer comes out, he says, "Soldier, what are you doing here?"

"Oh," I said,
"I-I was told that I could stay here, Im one of the survivors."

"Oh, oh, okay,
okay." He says, "Do you feel better?"

"Yes," I said.
"Please."

By that time everybody
started to gather around me, all bunched up. Then the chaplain comes up. And by that time,
the boats are all going. You could look out, its starting to get light, "What
the heck!" By the thousands! LSTs lined up. Which one I was on to make the invasion
of D-Day I dont know, but I know I was with the 94th Quartermaster
Railhead Company. So were going, and theres the priest, he says, "To all
faiths, to all you service boys on this ship, to Catholics, Jews, whatever your faith is,
may God speed, may God bless you, and lets hurry up home!"

So were starting to
go. By that time, we start to look out again, its lighter and lighter and lighter.
Then we start to hear it, "Boom! Boom-boom-boom-boomboom! Rat-tat-tat-tat." And
as you get a little closer, it gets louder and louder because youre getting there.
Before you know it, its almost, "Oh my God you cant believe it!"

Okay. Were starting
to come in. The LST goes as far as it could go. They have the ropes on the side. Big,
thick ropes. I start to come around with a full field pack and coming down, someone gets
his foot caught and is hanging in midair, "Forget him! Theyll get him down! You
keep going!" Because the Germans are strafing us.

As were going in,
guys are being hit and we say, "Oh my God, I hope the next ones not for me, not
for me, not for me." You keep going in. As you get onto land you can see the
engineers with the minesweepers, theyre trying to get the land mines because they
had them all around there. And then you see the medic guys trying to put up a big Red
Cross hospital. As theyre putting it up, a Luftwaffe comes down and strafes the hell
out of them, right near us. Were running on the side. But luckily, no bullets hit
us. So we kept on going. And they got those guys who were setting up the hospital.

Then as youre
coming in, youve got to follow the rest of the guys, they tell you where to go. Then
we hit on the side like where the big hedgerows were. We laid there, and we were soaked
and wet, and in the meantime theyre firing away. Then we stayed there for one or two
days. We woke up. Then they told us to move, and as youre getting up you looked out,
and you can smell all the dead bodies. Ugh, the Germans and the Americans. They tried to
pick up the Americans as fast as they can because it knocks the morale down, when you see
an American soldier there.

From there, they
didnt say too much to us, who I was assigned to, what company. I know it was Utah
Beach, I was with the Fourth Division, I didnt know too much.

Aaron
Elson: What
was your rank?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
was a Pfc. We had a lot of guys who were noncoms. I didnt care to be an officer. I
was a Pfc and then I was gonna become a corporal.

Aaron
Elson: Going
back a little bit, did they mention Utah Beach when they said that Slapton Sands resembled
Utah Beach, or did you learn that later?

Patsy
Giacchi: No,
after we got torpedoed they said it was supposed to resemble Utah Beach.

Aaron
Elson: What
kind of training did they give you for the life jacket?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
would say, my honest opinion is, they gave me training. Whats right is right. A lot
of these guys that wrote about this said the boys werent equipped, they didnt
know what they were doing." I knew what I was doing. I knew that. If you put it
[around your waist] and you inflate it, itll capsize you in the water. Youve
got to put it underneath your armpits and inflate it and then hold it there.

Aaron
Elson: And
the wrong way was around the waist?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yes. That would capsize you in the water. But everybody panicked. The guys downstairs, had
they knew it was the real thing, they would have moved with me because I screamed. I said,
"Im going up! Im going up!" I said that to my friend, Patty Moreno.
He went down with the boat when it got torpedoed. Dr. Eckstam even says that when he
started to close the hatches, he had one hatch he opened up and he looked inside and he
heard the death cry of all the soldiers, when he said that on "20/20" I knew
what he meant. I didnt see it, I was already on the top deck. Had I been down there
I would have never been here, thats the truth.

Aaron
Elson: You
mentioned two people, Patty Moreno and Bradshaw.

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yeah. I was gonna look up the Morenos, it took me fifty years, there are a million Morenos
in Brooklyn. I never did. I wanted to tell his family exactly what happened.

Aaron
Elson: What
was he like?

Patsy
Giacchi: He
was a very nice guy. He was a corporal or a buck sergeant, I forget his rank. He was in
the motor pool.

Aaron
Elson: What
was the first sound that you heard before the torpedo hit?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Like a scraping, and the whole ship jarred a little bit. A scraping sound. According to
[Angelo] Crapanzano, when you interviewed him, he says that the bottom of an LST is flat,
so the torpedoes were going underneath. And then this German guy who was the captain of
the E-boats, he said he elevated it high, and thats when that one hit the 507.

Aaron
Elson: When
you flew up, were you still on the stairs?

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh
no, I was off the stairs already.

Aaron
Elson: Was
the ship hit by two torpedoes?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Well, actually one torpedo. The other [explosion] I thought was a torpedo but they tell me
it was something else. It wasnt a torpedo. But whatever it was, had it been a moment
earlier, as I was coming up the steps, I wouldnt be here, because the stairs are so
narrow. And everything on the ship, on an LST, is nothing but steel, so that concussion,
when that torpedo hit, how long are those torpedoes? Eighteen feet, twenty feet long? I
dont know. How big in diameter? The German E-boat torpedoes, theyre terrific.
They were deadly. When it hit the ship, oh! But had I been down there Id have been
with those guys, but I knew it, when I came down and landed, I stood like this, "Pat,
youre breathing," I said. "Im okay."

Aaron
Elson: You
were bleeding from the forehead?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Right here, up on top here.

Aaron
Elson: Did
you feel any pain?

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh
yeah, I had a lot of pain. There was a big gash.

Aaron
Elson: Was
your helmet on?

Patsy
Giacchi: No,
I lost the helmet. When I went up, I didnt have it locked. I had it with the strap
loose, and when I went up and I came down, it fell off. And then I remember another thing
vividly. We had a bugler, his name was Eintracht, and somehow or other he was near us at
the edge. On the edge of the LST youve got a bar that goes around, and to jump off
youve got to get over to go over that bar. So all of a sudden this bugler is coming
near me and anything you do, if you dont do it fast, youre gone, youre
in a daze, you cant move, youre like doped up. All of a sudden hes
coming by me and hes trying to grab my belt, because he had no belt. And Im
trying to push him away. I didnt have much strength left, but Bradshaw gave him a
push, and he fell down. So we went over the side. I dont know what happened to
Eintracht.

Aaron
Elson: He
didnt have a life belt?

Patsy
Giacchi: He
didnt have a life belt, and he was trying to take mine. Yes. Oh, it was just in a
split second. Some guys were brave but some guys, theyd kill you to get that life
belt.

And then the guys that
were jumping in the water, wed see, theyd jump on top of another soldier
instead of jumping in the water away from the body. You couldnt believe it.

Aaron
Elson: Now,
this was in the middle of the night. It was 1:45 in the morning...

Patsy
Giacchi:
Give or take, whatever it was. Close to 2 oclock.

Aaron
Elson: And
you said that all these guys were sitting around playing dice and doing things. Was there
enough light on the tank deck?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yes, the lights were on. And no matter where you were you had to be careful because it was
so crowded with soldiers. You could hear guys saying, "When I get back home Im
gonna do this, Im gonna do that." And the soldiers, who had his shoes off,
nobody had their helmets on because youre inside the ship there, and they all knew
that it was gonna be a dry run, a fake problem. That was what they knew. But they never
knew it was the real thing. And you look around, you see guys talking, some guys are
sleeping. And I was scared. I didnt sleep that night. I lay down on the stretcher.
Patty Moreno was writing a letter to his grandfather, and I was looking at the two big
doors, and I could see little puddles of water where the big doors open up. And then I
looked around and I said, "Let me see now, the steps are over there, just in
case," and then, boom-boom-boom, I heard a couple of noises, boom-boom, whatever it
was, outside. I dont know what it was, the guns were shooting, other LSTs were
shooting. I waited a while, and then the second time I heard something, when it jarred the
ship, I said, "Paddy, Im going."

"Aw, Pat, dont
go! Its only a dry run."

I put my helmet on. I
took my gas mask. I said I need the lifebelt, and I put that on, and I checked it. And I
started to go up to the stairs, and as I got to the top, I couldnt believe it. I saw
the ocean was on fire. I saw a Navy man, because they had the gray helmets, we had the
green ones, he was wrapped around a gun, dead. He was dead, poor guy, he must have been
firing the gun when the torpedo hit. He was wrapped around the gun and there was blood all
over him, he was gone. I saw him when I came up, after I went into the water.

Aaron
Elson: When
you saw that, what did you think? Were you in shock?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yes, I was. I was 20 years old, but I knew it was the real thing, and somehow or another,
I saw a vision of my mother. She said to me, "Save yourself!" in Italian.
"Save yourself!"

I said, "I will,
Mom! I will, Mom!" This is the truth. The feeling I had.

Patsy
Giacchi: As
I got up to the surface, Bradshaw was on the side of me, and as I turned around I saw the
Navy man killed on the 40-millimeter gun. As I turned around I saw the ocean on fire, then
a split second, wow! It was like an angel. And my mother said to me, "Patsy, save
yourself!" in Italian. "Save yourself!" I said, "Mom, I will!" I
never said nothing to Bradshaw. I was too excited. And I feel this  I never gave up.
I never gave up. I hit that water and never gave up. And I was never a good swimmer. I
feared water. That belt saved me. I respected that belt, because without it Id have
been gone, you couldnt stand it. When we hit the water I swallowed so much salt
water, because I wasnt prepared for that part. I swallowed a lot of water. And then
we started to drift away, and every now and then youd see something like a shadow
off in the distance, it could have been an E-boat going back, they dropped their
torpedoes, then they left and went back, whatever it was. But the four or five hours
seemed like four or five days, the feeling you had, when youre in that water by
yourself, you and this other guy.

Aaron
Elson: Just
the two of you?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Just the two of us. And he was a year or two older, about 22 or 23, and you know how the
Southern boys speak very softly, "Patsy," he says, "youve got to grab
it and hold it," he says. "Were gonna beat thing."

I said, "Oh yes,
Bradshaw, oh yes, were gonna beat this, were gonna beat this, oh yes!"
But I had that doubt in my mind, "Jesus, what happens, nobodys gonna pick us
up, what if were gonna drift into the middle of the ocean? I dont know what
part of the Channel we were in, we just drifted away. Then we saw that light off in the
distance there, and it came close, oh, we were saved. And we didnt care even if was
the Germans. This is the feeling I had, I told him, I said, "I dont care if
its the Germans. Weve got to get out of this water or were gonna
die."

He said, "All right
Patty. If its the Germans, well go. Well do what they tell us to
do."

Aaron
Elson: What
did you and Bradshaw talk about in the water.

Patsy
Giacchi: We
didnt say too much. He kept saying, "Were gonna beat this. Were
gonna beat this." And I wouldnt say nothing. I would agree with him. Id
say, "Yeah, were gonna beat it. Were gonna beat it." But any minute,
you know, they said that some of the other guys, like Crapanzano says some of the guys
just gave up. You do it. There were some times I said to myself, "No, hold on, hold
on, dont, a little more to go, a little. Mama said, Save yourself! Save
yourself! And I held on for dear life. A couple of times, you automatically,
youre in the water so many hours, and it seems like days, the feeling you get,
its cold. You couldnt believe it. Your skin is all wrinkled up because of the
salt water."

Aaron
Elson: Did
you think about sharks?

Patsy
Giacchi: To
tell you the truth they never entered my mind. Its just that I knew I was in the
water. I knew I was deep. I knew I was in the English Channel. I realized that much, ohhh,
every time I think of it. Just to keep on going, going, going. To try to make it, you know
what I mean?

Aaron
Elson: Did
you get hungry or thirsty?

Patsy
Giacchi: No,
nothing like that. I had no appetite. The only thing is, I do realize that I survived it
so far. I was alive. I remember that part, and every now and then my mother would say, in
Italian, "Save yourself! Save yourself!" "Yes Mom! Yes Mom!" To
myself. I looked at Bradshaw, and I didnt say nothing. And if you said to me,
"Patsy, did you think you were gonna make it?" At times, I didnt think I
was. It was so cold, and a couple of times I was ready to give up but I never gave up. And
then, when I got picked up, I couldnt believe it. I said, "Bradshaw,
theres something this coming this way. Even if its the Germans, we dont
care. Lets get picked up."

He said, "Okay, Pat.
You go first."

"Bradshaw, I
dont care."

Aaron
Elson: He
offered to let you go first? That to me is heroic.

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh
yes. Oh yes. He was something else. We stayed together. But it was something. Theres
a lot that I probably left out that I just cant dig it up, I forgot about it, but
its amazing. Its amazing how they did it, and everything was hush-hush. We
didnt get too much information about D-Day; it was coming later on. I heard a lot
about D-Day after I got torpedoed, that it was coming on any day now, they didnt
want the Germans to know. They said they were gonna land in Calais but it was along the
Normandy coast.

Aaron
Elson: When
did they tell you not to say anything?

Patsy
Giacchi:
After I got off the British corvette. MPs came and got us and took us someplace. They had
an Army doctor there. "Okay, youll be all right." And you couldnt
put in for a Purple Heart, because it was supposed to be hush-hush. I dont know how
Crapanzano and some of these other guys got medals, a lot of them got medals. I got
nothing. But I wasnt looking for that. I was looking to beat the rap, to save
myself.

Aaron
Elson: On
D-Day, what did it feel like to be back on an LST?

Patsy
Giacchi:
What a feeling it was to get on an LST, because it seemed like maybe a week before that I
was torpedoed. I said, "What the hell are you guys doing?"

The sergeant said,
"We have strict orders."

These guys, they were
MPs, they had .45s. And we had to get on the ship, we had to make the invasion. "We
need every goddamned available man," they said. "Every available man. We
cant spare nobody."

Bradshaw looked at me and
I said, "What are we gonna do? We have to go."

Aaron
Elson: Was
he scared also?

Patsy
Giacchi: You
could say, yes, but he didnt show it as much as I did. You know, I figured, and
its the truth, I thought I was finished. I said, "What the hell am I gonna do?
I couldnt grab a gun now." I couldnt believe that I survived that
torpedo.

Aaron
Elson: When
you were on the on the LST going into D-Day, did they ask you what happened?

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh,
yeah. Some of them from the company I joined, the 94th, they knew about it.
Somebody must have said something, that we got three or four survivors  there were
just two, me and Bradshaw  of a ship that was torpedoed. But nobody actually came up
to me and said, "What happened?" They didnt ask me. They looked at me,
stared at me. They probably had orders to leave us alone or dont say nothing,
because they were trying to be nice, but they needed every available man. And they were
short on LSTs. But the guys didnt ask me questions as to what happened. They knew
that I was a survivor. Theyd give you a seat, they figure, "Oh, this guy saw
action already," you know, I didnt see nothing. Cmon. It was nothing like
some other people saw.

Aaron
Elson: What
does a quartermaster railhead company do?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Okay. Ammunition, food, gasoline, our job was to go down to the LSTs, they had big cranes
on there, and we would go down with the amphibious Ducks, the big crane would take this
big pile of K rations or whatever it was, and put it on a Duck. The Duck would drive from
the water, then when it gets on land, it drives away. They would bring it back to our
area, and we would stack the stuff and cover it with camouflage. Our job was to bring the
supplies to the boys. And you know, we werent rear echelon, we were right up there
with the guys. We werent actually in combat hand to hand, but we were right there.
They were doing the fighting, the infantry and the engineers and so forth, and we had to
supply them. We had to go up there with them.

And a few times,
Ill never forget, this was later on after me being torpedoed, they hit an ammunition
dump. Ho boy, you ought to see that thing go up. All kinds of ammunition, the big
blockbusters, they used to store it, and we used to dig holes around it, just in case
there was a fire, so it wouldnt go beyond that big, big deep hole.

Aaron
Elson: These
were German planes that hit an American ammunition dump?

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh,
yessss. The Germans, they knew. I dont know how they knew, whether they had
reconnaissance. Sometimes you could hear a plane and everybody would look up,
"Rrrrrrrrrrr," youd hear it, and you know damn well its not an
American plane. You know your motors after a while, the P-51 Lockheed, or the,
theres a 38, whatever they are, the Mustangs, the P-38, you could hear that. But you
could hear the Germans, "Rrrrrrrrr," probably taking aerial shots. Many times,
oh yes. And then a couple days later, Bang! They hit that ammunition dump. They were good.
The Germans were good fighters. Their guns were perfect. Their 88s were good.

Aaron
Elson: What
would you do when these attacks would come?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Youd run for the nearest hole. You had a foxhole, youd go into it.
Automatically, you go for shelter, you do. You hide. You put your head down and you hope
to God the next ones not gonna be in your area. If theyre dropping a bomb or
if theyre strafing. Many times they strafed. I never got hit by a strafing bullet,
but sometimes it was awful close.

Aaron
Elson: Did
you hear stories when you were in the quartermaster section, when soldiers would come off
the front? What would they talk about?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
remember, we went through Ste. Mere Eglise. Now, we were quartermasters, we went through
with the guys we were attached to 18 or 20 days after D-Day. But the paratroopers landed
there H-Hour, thats before D-Day, it could have been the 82nd or the 101st,
we used to hear stories about those guys, that theyre coming down, the Germans were
strafing them, they had them like sitting ducks. A lot of them got killed as they were
coming down. And we heard that a lot of them drowned. The Germans opened up the reservoirs
or something like that, and when they were dropping, they drowned, because they had a full
field pack, and they drowned in water four or five feet deep. They found a lot of
paratroopers the next day bloated up from drowning. Ill never forget that, I heard
those stories.

And then we used to hear
stories of how the Germans with their artillery gun called the 88. The 88 was so damn
accurate they used to pick up an American soldier walking maybe two or three miles, they
could pick him up by himself, thats how accurate their guns were. We used to hear
this every day. And we knew that their burp guns were sensational, their machine guns.
Everything they had was more superior than us. Im getting away from this Tiger
Exercise. I remember I thought, "Jesus, wow, the wars just started, weve
got a long way to go." And then, every now and then wed see maybe three, four,
five hundred German prisoners, they were taking them away and bringing them to England.
Theyd be saying, "No! No! We want to go to America! Because in America
theyll spare us. The English will kill us."

Aaron
Elson:
Really?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yeah. They were very afraid. We were right there. And then Ill never forget on D-Day
I saw some Japanese in German uniforms, when they captured the Germans along with
Japanese, the Japanese were with the Germans in German uniforms. They were Japanese,
Ill never forget that. I saw that.

But then along the beach
on D-Day you see all kinds of LSTs there, and then you see the barrage balloons all over,
so that the Germans cant get in with their Luftwaffe to strafe them, to keep them
high above and away like that. And then every night at the beach there, while we were
having our K rations, or youd be trying to walk down the beach, they used to drop
flares. The Germans would drop flares that used to make our area look like Broadway, and
if it lit up they told you, no matter what youre doing, freeze, because if you moved
they could spot you with the planes.

Then I pulled guard duty
on D-Day. I was scared. They go by alphabetical order, my name is G, Giacchi, and mine was
the last one to be picked. They said, "When your name is called, fall out."

In the meantime
everybody, me, you, everybodys scared on D-Day. You could hear the guns going
bom-bom, tat-tat-tat-tat-da-da-da. Like that. Everything. All of a sudden I pulled guard
duty. And my job was to go up there and watch the K rations. There I am with a steel
helmet on, Ive got the gun like this here, and then they said that if you hear
anything, therell be another soldier near you, just give your call. We had the
signal, we had the little information like the cue card to tell us what to say. All of a
sudden, they started to bomb up above us, and the flak was coming down, you could see the
hot flak, and were standing there, holy cow! The flak coming down, a piece of
shrapnel comes down and started to light a fire on the grass. I put it out. I was so
scared. The Germans are here! So finally, thats it, one hour, it seems like about 50
hours. The corporal comes. "Pat? Its me. Corporal Gray. Yeah. Youre gonna
be relieved."

"Oh, thank God! Oh,
thank God!"

Another guy asked me,
"Pat, how is it?"

I was scared, scared,
because there were Germans all around us. But I was lucky because if I ran into a German I
dont know what my reaction would have been because. If they told me to stay awake, I
would stay awake, the guys that were sleeping, that I would never do. I would never fall
asleep on guard duty. You couldnt. Because there was too much action there. But I
wasnt firing my gun, nothing like that. I was just holding and protecting it.

Aaron
Elson: Did
you have trouble sleeping?

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh,
God. Oh, God. You would be on the beach. The shoes, I think the first time I took my shoes
off was after about 21 days. So when some of the guys took their shoes off, uggh! Things
like that. Some guys had swollen feet. But with me, we used to wear the paratrooper boots,
because I was assigned to the combat engineers. I was quartermaster, but these guys always
were right near the front.

Aaron
Elson: What
was your job in the quartermasters?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
was a loader. I would lift up stuff and put the rations onto the trucks. All of us, we had
to do it. We had to bring the supplies up to the guys. And every now and then, at times,
this is going off the subject, every now and then somebody would come in, some soldier
maybe got drunk, he wound up getting some cognac, somebody would come in, theyd have
two chickens, somebody would say, "Ill kill them, give them to me, Ill
kill those chickens," and wed eat them. Because we never had chicken like that.
We always had the K rations, the special chocolate thats got vitamin this and
vitamin that.

I was in the service
almost for three years, but from the time I left the States, I couldnt believe,
everything happened so fast to me. I went in one day, a week later Im in
Pennsylvania. Im there, the next day Im in Camp Lee, Virginia. Thirteen weeks
of basic. Come home. Take a furlough for 17 days. Go back. Before you know it, I
cant believe it. Im on the high seas, going overseas. They said over the
loudspeaker, "Okay, we can tell you where you are, now that we are outside the
jurisdiction of the United States. You boys are now going to the ETO." What the
hells the ETO? ETO means Europe Theater of Operation. "Oh, thank God, we
aint going to fight the Japs." Cause the Japs are dirty, they dont
care. The Germans are more civilized. The Germans were better than the Japs, because they
used to value their lives too, the Germans. But they were good fighters. And like I say,
21 days to cross that, I couldnt believe it. Before you know it were in
Liverpool.

Aaron
Elson: What
was the crossing like? Did you get seasick?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yes, very bad. I got seasick very bad. I pulled KP on the Mauritania. Im not trying
to make you laugh, I pulled KP, my second day on this big, large, tremendous ship.
Ive got a picture of it. I pulled KP, and here I am with all the other guys, pulling
KP, so Im downstairs in the kitchen, all of a sudden
"Boom-boomboomboom-boom!" I dropped that pot. "Man your stations! Man your
stations!" Oh God! Youve got to go by a certain station where the lifeboats
are, in case. It was a fake drill, to show us what to do. But in the meantime,
theyre shooting at something, theres still something out there,
"Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tat-tat." Wow. They were accurate. They were good. Because
theyd been fighting, you know, the British, compared to us.

Then they told us while
we were there to turn around and look at the back of the boat, whatever they call it, the
bow or the stern, look at the back of the boat, and you could see the path in the water.
It was never a straight line. It was zigzag, zigzag, zigzag. You cant torpedo a boat
zigzagging like that.

I said to a couple of
British guys, "Tell me the truth, are we being chased?"

"Are we being
chased? Theyre on our tail!" The German submarines, they used to come, I
dont want to exaggerate but they came close many times near New York. I dont
know if you heard something like that. They picked up strange noises. And I believe the
Germans could do that. They were accurate. They were so good. That they came probably
close to New York many times. Probably they followed a lot of the boats going out. Because
LSTs were a sucker for those, oh, they were beautiful, they used to eat those things up.
And they knew LSTs carried a lot of stuff. The Germans knew that. They carried troops and
ammunition and supplies. Theyve got the flat bottom and they knew all about it. Like
we knew about them, they knew about us.

Aaron
Elson: Were
you in a convoy, or was the Mauritania by itself?

Patsy
Giacchi: The
Mauritania was all by itself. No escort. But it was loaded with all those big guns.

Aaron
Elson: Now,
you said you got seasick. What was that like?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Thats a funny feeling. We had some of the soldiers get so sick that actually they
started coughing up blood. They were really sick until we got to England.

Aaron
Elson: Did
you smoke at the time?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yes, I smoked. I admit, I used to smoke. So did everybody else. You pick it up. I never
smoked before, but you pick it up in the Army. You have nothing to do, you go crazy. You
pick it up. And guys that never drank before, youd be surprised what happens, how
you change. You cant help it. Not that youre gonna be deadly, commit suicide
or go out and shoot somebody dead, but certain things, you say its a bad habit, but
it could be worse. Oh, some of the soldiers were bastards. Ohhh, yes. Some of the guys
were perverts and sick.

Aaron
Elson: These
were front line soldiers or quartermasters?

Patsy
Giacchi: No,
they were quartermasters.

Aaron
Elson: Off
the front a little bit, all sorts of stuff must have happened.

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh,
yes, oh yes. It was a tough life. For my part, I did what I had to do. I was a good
soldier. I should have had more rank, they told me. I didnt want to mess around with
stuff like that. I was a Pfc. Then I became a corporal, and then they were supposed to
give me stripes and we got torpedoed. I was supposed to get stripes after we came back
from Slapton Sands, I was gonna be a corporal, but when we got torpedoed all the records
went down.

Aaron
Elson: Your
parents, your mother spoke Italian?

Patsy
Giacchi: My
mother spoke Italian.

Aaron
Elson: Did
you speak Italian?

Patsy
Giacchi:
Yes, but I spoke a dialect, which was Sicilian. And they were picking up English pretty
good. We used to kid them around back in Hackensack, "Hey, Mom, look, youre in
America, speak English. If you want to speak Italian, go to your county."

Ah, I gonna learn. I
gonna learn."

"Speak English. This
is America."

Aaron
Elson: And
your father?

Patsy
Giacchi: My
father the same thing. Well, he was going to night school, in Hackensack. Mrs. Micalini,
Ill never forget her, she was an oldtimer then, she used to say, "Your
fathers coming along fine, hes doing nice. Hes writing his name
nice." He used to write his name, L, like Luigi, Lllllll. It takes him five pages to
write L. No, make a small letter. And things like that. He started to pick it up.

Aaron
Elson: Were
your patents married in Italy?

Patsy
Giacchi: No,
they got married in Paterson. In those days, the boat would come in to Ellis Island and
the Statue of Liberty, and they separated them there. They went to Paterson. I heard the
story from my older sister and brothers, theyre all gone now, theyre dead, but
I would hear the story that they had come to Paterson. Then they moved to Hackensack.

Aaron
Elson: And
your father, what did he do?

Patsy
Giacchi: He
was a farmer. He used to work in Teterboro, years ago there used to be big farms there, he
used to work for a lot of those farmers, when it was the season. When it was tomato season
and celery and so forth, he used to make so much a week. Of course their pay was very
little then for farming, but long hours.

Aaron
Elson: How
many brothers and sisters did you have?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
had two brothers. My brother Johnny died of a heart attack. And Joey is my other brother,
hes about now 68, because Im 75 and Johnny would have been about 80 if he was
living. Then I had five sisters. Half of them died of bad hearts and whatnot. Because in
those days they didnt do much about rheumatic fever and murmur of the heart,
youd die. Today they can almost conquer it, they can live. And my mother died when
she was about 80. My father died while I was in Germany, in a town called Schweigenhausen.
My father passed away, and the thing that I want to say is that my mother was always a
sickly person. She was the one that had a stroke when I was 12 years old, she had
rheumatic fever. So when my sergeant came to me and said, "Captain Ashley wants to
see you," I said, "Ohhh, God, dont tell me I made corporal again. Look, I
made corporal again!" So when I went there  they slept in the pyramidal tents;
we slept in a foxhole, they slept in a big tent. It was up in the line.

All of a sudden he chased
everybody out of the tent. It was just me and the captain. So hes got a letter, and
its all burnt on the edges. So Im nervous.

He says, "Patsy, how
long have you been in my company?"

"Well, Sir, from the
time I, after I got torpedoed."

And he says, "Now
Ive got to tell you something. Youve been a very good soldier "

"Well, gee, thank
you, Sir."

He says, "Well,
Ive got a little sad news for you."

I go crazy right away.
Some guys could take it. I just cant. I looked at him, "Sir, is it my father or
my mother?"

He says

"I know. My
mother." But it wasnt my mother. He told me it was my father. But I thought it
was my mother. Because my mother was always sick. He says, "This letter is addressed
from your parish, St. Francis Church," which is in Hackensack, on Lodi Street,
its a Catholic church. He says, "Ive got a letter here from the priest.
He says your father has passed away."

I said, "Gee, I
know, she was very sickly."

He says, "No, not
she. Its your father."

"Oh, Im sorry,
Sir."

"No, your
mothers living, its your father."

He opened up the letter.
He showed it to me, it was all burnt. But the letter was already seven months old. My
father was dead seven months. They couldnt get to me because we used to move up so
goddamn fast. When he showed me the letter, it said that the priest said, "Patsy,
were very sorry to inform you that your father has passed away," but this was
seven months later they brought it to my attention! My father had been dead and buried for
seven months. And I said to myself, "No wonder Im not getting any mail from my
sisters and my girlfriend"  she was my girlfriend then, Emily, that I married.
Because they were writing to me. But then when I got the mail, whoa! They had a whole
special truck for me alone. "Patsy! Weve got a big box for you alone!"
From Emily, loads and loads of letters, from my sister Jane and everybody else, they said
they tried everything to save my father but they couldnt. At that time they
didnt know too much about cancer of the throat. He smoked. Here I thought it was my
mother. And they were good about it, my company was good. They sent me back to the rear
echelon and gave me two weeks off. Then I came back and kept on moving. By that time, I
didnt realize it but we were getting closer to the end of the war.

When the war ended, I was
in Germany, in a town called Ulm, U-L-M, we say Ulm, but they say "Oohlm," the
Germans. Out of the clear blue sky over the loudspeaker they say, "The war has ended!
The war has ended!" Here I am in a foxhole talking to one of my buddies. "What
did they say?"

"Pat! The war has
ended!" Youd see there were some of them out there going crazy. Guys were
shooting each other by mistake! GIs, yes, they were shooting themselves, from the
excitement. They tried to tell everybody, "Calm down! Be careful!"

And I was in a foxhole
down there, "The war is over! The war is over!" I was crying in the foxhole from
joy, I couldnt believe it. The following morning they called formation outside, they
said, "The following names, please step forward." Finally, "Pfc. Patsy
Giacchi!" I step forward.

"Okay," the
captain says, "you guys are all going home. "

Boom. One guy passes out
from the excitement. I couldnt believe it. I think I was 21 years old then.

The following day, it was
a clear blue sky, "Cover up your foxholes." Before you know it, they put us on
trucks, the big Army trucks, they load you up in there, hold the back door, the driver
takes off, and hes going for miles and miles and miles, before you know it,
youre riding almost a whole day. You ride from one part of Germany to another part.
You bivouac. Five in the morning you get up, take your tents down, they give you coffee.
Boom! We start to travel. Before you know it were deep into France. Another couple
of days were in Le Havre. And theres the big liberty ships waiting. But before
all that they had to give you the inspection, because a lot of guys caught venereal
disease. If you had a venereal disease, they took you out of line. They put you in the
hospital, and they cured you there, then they would send you home. A lot of guys were
pulled out, who had syphilis, the clap. A lot of soldiers caught VD over there. They
taught them how to use prophylactics, but a lot of guys were stupid, they got drunk

Now Im on a liberty
ship coming home, I cant believe it. All of a sudden, after about a week, they said,
"Here it is, boys." We come around a big bend, and they say, "You guys want
to see it? Go up on the top deck, you can see it."

What is it? Were
hitting Newport News, Rhode Island. And you look, as you come in, you cant believe
it, the United States. And a big sign that says, "Welcome home, boys! Well
done!" Im on the deck there, Im crying, I cant believe it.

All of a sudden you start
to line up. I said, "Pat, be careful now, Pat be careful, you made it through the
whole war. Dont get killed, dont fall off the ship or get hurt." Careful.
Careful. Then they call your name, you step down. So when I got off, I did what they all
do: I kissed the ground. I cried.

Then, "All the guys
from New Jersey, line up one one side, youre going to Fort Monmouth." All the
guys from another state, they line up somewhere else.

So I went to Fort
Monmouth. The following morning we had to go to a big church. You had the organist up
there playing songs.

They said, "When
your name is called, step up, salute the officer whos giving you your discharge
papers, make a turn, go back, youre discharged from the Army."

"Pfc. Patsy J.
Giacchi."

"Pfc Patsy J.
Giacchi!"

A guy goes, "Hey,
thats you!"

"Oh, yeah!
Yeah!" I go up there, nervous. They give me that paper. I walk back.

"You dont go
back and sit down! Get the hell out of here, youre discharged!" I see an
officer go by, I salute him. He says, "Youre not a soldier anymore."

"Im sorry,
Sir."

"Thats
okay."

So Im the only guy
thats coming towards Hackensack. They told me where to get the next bus to go from
Fort Monmouth to Newark.

Im on the bus a
couple of hours, and then the driver says, "Newark, Penn Station!"

"Penn Station!"
I remember that from when I was a kid! Penn Station in Newark.

I got off the bus. I went
to a telephone booth. There were many guys there. My time came. I took out my wallet. Now,
I didnt know my phone number, because when I left it was three years ago. So I
opened up my wallet to look for my phone number. I had my mustering out pay. They gave me
three hundred dollars when I got discharged, plus I had another two hundred dollars.
Thats 1945. Thats a lot of money. So Im nervous, all of a sudden,
"Hello, who am I speaking to?"

I left. I couldnt
believe it. I left the wallet there. This is the gods honest truth. I had some
change in my pocket, and a couple of bills. I got on the bus. I took the bus from Newark
to Hackensack. Then from Hackensack on Main Street I took a taxicab to West Street, where
I lived.

As Im coming around
the corner, theyve got the thing lit up for me in front of my house, "Welcome
home, Patsy!" All my neighbors are waiting for me. All my Italian neighbors,
theyre all waiting for me. I get out of there, and theyre grabbing me, my
mothers trying to grab me, my father, no, my fathers dead, my mother was
trying to grab me, my sisters were there. The neighbors were there. Across the street the
DeLorenzos. "Ohhh, Patsy, its good to see you" and everything else.
Whos pulling me here, whos pulling me there.

After about two hours,
some of the neighbors disperse, we go inside, we started talking.

Then Jane says,
"Gee, Patty, have you got any pictures?"

"Ive got one
or two pictures. JANE! My wallet! I left it in Newark."

"Oh my God! How much
was in it?"

"Five hundred!"

"Five
HUNDRED?!!!" Then it was like five thousand.

We call up Newark. They
say, "Would you please come on down?"

We get down to Newark. I
go where I made the telephone call from. Behind the counter, theres a couple of cops
there, security or something else. They said, "Soldier, we get this every day.
Youre going to have to give us some real good detail. Everybody tells us "black
wallet, brown wallet," something like that. Tell us if you can whats in your
wallet.

"Well," I said,
"Ive got a couple of this, a couple of that."

"Keep on
going." The other guys writing it down.

I said, "Okay.
Ive got it. Okay, now look." There was a picture of my girlfriend in it.

I was always excited.
"Take your time now," he says.

"Okay. Youll
see a picture of my girlfriend, an Italian girl with long black hair. Shes got a
dress on"  I bought her this dress, and the dress has got an emblem of a little
parrot."

That did the trick. They
gave me the wallet, with the money in it and everything else.

"Sir," I said,
"who returned this for me?"

He said, "A little
old lady. She said, Some poor little bugger left his wallet here with all his money.
Please see that he gets it. "

I said, "I
cant give her a reward?"

He said, "She
doesnt want a reward. Just take care of yourself, she said."

Whoever the old lady was.
Five hundred. Nothing was touched. Somebody else could have took it, I dont know
why. They saw pictures of me in uniform, they must have felt sorry.

Aaron
Elson: All
this time, when you would write home, did you write that you had been torpedoed?

Patsy
Giacchi: I
couldnt say, no, I couldnt say nothing about the torpedo. In fact, it would be
censored. Because everything there was V-mail.

Aaron
Elson: So
did anybody at home know what you had gone through?

Patsy
Giacchi: No,
because when I got home, I told them exactly what happened. They started to go crazy and
cry, "Pat, we didnt know nothing. We thought everything was always fine. We
knew that you were seeing a lot of action," but when I told them the whole story, how
I got torpedoed, they couldnt believe it, nothing was ever said, no letters, no
nothing. It was hush-hush. For years and years.

Aaron
Elson: Did
you keep in touch with Bradshaw?

Patsy
Giacchi: No.
When we got off the liberty ship, I shook his hand, and I had papers, I lost his address,
he didnt write to me, I didnt write to him, and it just dissolved like that.
What part of Alabama he was from, I dont know.

Aaron
Elson: Going
across Europe, when you would talk with your buddies or would have a quiet moment, would
you tell people what happened?

Patsy
Giacchi:
About being torpedoed? I shut up. I never mentioned it. They had me baffled on it, this is
the truth, but I knew, we knew, that they made a booboo, it should have never happened.
Everybody that was involved, whoever, starting from the big brass, Eisenhower and so
forth, he should have come out with the truth. He should have told from the beginning what
happened to our boys.

Aaron
Elson: Did
Eisenhowers name come up when they were telling you not to say anything?

Patsy
Giacchi: Oh
yes. "Ike wouldnt like this. Weve got to keep this quiet. We dont
want anybody to know about this. We dont want this information to get back to the
Germans."

Aaron
Elson: Who
said that?

Patsy
Giacchi: It
was a colonel who said it to me. They had orders to throw their voice, they werent
just calm like that.

Aaron
Elson: Did
they say it to you individually or to a group?

Patsy
Giacchi: To
a group of us. They went more or less like this, "You, you, you, you This is
strictly confidential. You dont say a word as to what happened. Forget about what
happened yesterday." And yesterday we were torpedoed.